Suddenly, the Earth Demon baleful qi grew momentarily stagnant.
Lu Huai frowned and abruptly looked toward the direction where the Earth Demon baleful qi had become still.
It was a small hillside. Beneath it lay an empty stretch of land, with only a patch of grass that had clearly been trampled by people and was somewhat flat.
Yet there was no one there.
“Could the coordinates provided by the lord have been wrong?”
Lu Huai furrowed his brows and, unwilling to give up, used the Earth Demon baleful qi to sense the area carefully once more.
At the same time, beneath the hill, Helan Ying held Yuan Shu tightly in his arms. She was completely naked.
The Yin-Yang Bliss Art was still circulating within her body, helping her spiritual power grow.
She had seen Lu Huai. Several times, she had grabbed Helan Ying by the shoulders, trying to make him stop fooling around.
But Helan Ying acted as though he had not noticed Lu Huai at all. Lowering his head, he kissed her lips.
Yuan Shu’s mind was hazy, but her heart remained uneasy.
Her gaze stayed fixed on Lu Huai, who was scanning the distant surroundings from atop the hill.
Lu Huai’s eyes swept over the area beneath the slope, but then, as though he had seen nothing at all, he raised his gaze and looked elsewhere.
His expression was somewhat irritable. After carefully examining the surroundings once more, he found only a faint trace of Bliss energy drifting through the air. There was none of the Earth Demon baleful qi he had expected!
After a while, he finally gave up. With a wave of his hand, he directed his subordinates.
“Move. Continue the pursuit farther ahead!”
Yuan Shu stared blankly for a moment. “They… can’t see us?”
“No.”
Helan Ying lowered his head and kissed her lips before giving her a quiet explanation.
“Shushu, this is called ‘one leaf obscures the eye.’”
“The people chasing us are too annoying, and they caught up far too quickly. Continuing to flee isn’t a solution.”
“Shushu, the Bliss energy inside you is extremely powerful. So I used a minor secret technique to conceal the Earth Demon baleful qi beneath it.”
“With the assistance of a formation, those pursuers can only sense the Bliss energy lingering nearby. They won’t be able to detect the Earth Demon baleful qi.”
“They’ll simply follow this path forward. That way, we won’t have to keep running in such a panic!”
So that was it?
Yuan Shu was rather surprised. The Earth Demon race actually possessed a secret technique like this?
“When did you discover them?” Yuan Shu asked, hooking her arms around Helan Ying’s shoulders.
“Before… I tested you.”
“At the time, I was only thinking about how to shake off our pursuers. After discovering your identity, I came up with this plan.”
Helan Ying explained softly.
“Shushu, they can’t see us. You don’t have to feel embarrassed. The only person who can see you is me!”
Helan Ying chuckled and kissed her.
“Shushu, you’re so beautiful.”
“Shushu, I like you so much!”
The gloomy, pitiful little puppy from before had transformed into a bold and playful wolf.
He murmured provocative sweet nothings while his large hands held Yuan Shu tightly against him.
“When… when are we… going to stop?” Yuan Shu was forced to wrap her arms around his neck.
Helan Ying’s lips curved slightly.
“To prevent them from turning back, I’m afraid we’ll have to keep going for a while…”
“Only this way can the Bliss energy conceal the Earth Demon baleful qi more effectively!”
“Shushu, am I better than Helan Zhao?”
Better than Helan Zhao?
Yuan Shu actually thought about it carefully. She opened her mouth, just about to answer, when Helan Ying lowered his head and sealed her lips with a kiss.
Huh?
Yuan Shu was somewhat bewildered, but Helan Ying had no intention of letting her speak.
He had only wanted to ask. He did not actually want to know Yuan Shu’s answer.
He firmly believed that he was definitely better than Helan Zhao!
…
“Shushu, the demonic spirit hounds… Shushu!”
Helan Zhao returned dusty and travel-worn, raising his voice excitedly as he prepared to report his glorious victory.
Then he saw the two people embracing on the blanket spread out beneath the hill.
Helan Zhao’s eyes widened. It felt as though an entire basin of icy water had been poured over him, chilling him to the bone.
The glorious achievement of having just slain dozens of demonic spirit hounds caught in his throat, never to be spoken!
He staggered forward, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier.
The transparent barrier shimmered with a green glow and possessed strength comparable to that of the Void Refinement realm. It was far beyond Helan Zhao’s ability to break.
He pounded on it and shouted loudly from outside.
Inside the barrier, Yuan Shu could not see Helan Zhao at all because of its effects.
Helan Ying was simply too formidable, and she could not spare any attention for anything else.
The only person who could see Helan Zhao was Helan Ying.
The barrier had been created by him. He could decide who was able to see through it and who was able to hear what was happening inside.
Whenever Helan Ying remembered how Helan Zhao had taken advantage of his injuries, weakened strength, and blindness to torment Yuan Shu right in front of him, the rage in his heart became impossible to extinguish.
Now, he had obtained a trace of Baize spiritual essence from Yuan Shu, and his strength had recovered considerably.
He wanted Helan Zhao to experience what it meant to be able to see but not touch!
He knew that there was still pure yang dragon qi within Helan Zhao, which was why Yuan Shu would never truly touch him.
But Helan Ying had no such concerns.
The pure yang dragon qi belonging to Helan Ying had also been given to Yuan Shu, so he no longer had to worry about the qi turning on him.
He could… love her to his heart’s content!
Watching Helan Zhao howl and claw at the barrier like a mad dog, Helan Ying finally spared a thread of his attention and sent his voice directly into Helan Zhao’s mind.
“Helan Zhao, if you keep making that racket and attract the demons or the Earth Demon race, do you think Yuan Shu will blame you?”
Helan Zhao’s hand paused against the barrier.
His furious gaze turned toward Helan Ying, and he ground his teeth as he spat, “You’re shameless!”
“Shameless? When you took advantage of my blindness to bully her, weren’t you being shameless?”
Helan Ying let out a cold laugh.
“I know you want to love her the way I do, but you can’t do that now. Hahahaha! Helan Zhao, all you can do is stand outside this barrier and stew in envy, jealousy, and hatred!”
“You!”
Helan Zhao’s eyes were bloodshot as he glared viciously at Helan Ying.
Helan Ying was in an excellent mood. Just as Helan Zhao had berated him that day, he raised his voice and said, “If you know what’s good for you, get lost!”
…
When Yuan Shu woke up, night had already fallen.
Helan Ying was holding her in his arms beside a fire in a mountain cave. Sitting opposite them was Helan Zhao, whose expression was dark and sullen.
His robes were stained with quite a bit of dust, and there were conspicuous smudges of ash on his originally refined, spotless face. He looked as though he had been thoroughly roughed up.
Yuan Shu blinked. When she looked up, she met Helan Zhao’s gaze.
The moment he saw that she was awake, the anger on Helan Zhao’s face changed at once. He immediately put on a five-parts-aggrieved, pitiful expression and pursed his lips as he looked at Yuan Shu.
Yuan Shu: “…”
She had gotten so carried away that, for a moment, she had completely forgotten about Helan Zhao, whom Helan Ying had sent off to do some work.
Judging from his appearance, he had not been captured by the demons, had he?
Could it be… that he had fought Helan Ying?
Yuan Shu turned to look at Helan Ying, who was holding her. His features were clean and exquisitely handsome, and his deep green eyes sparkled like jewels.
As beautiful as ever!
Seeing that she was awake, Helan Ying gave her a gentle smile.
“Did you do this to him?” Helan Zhao’s expression was far too aggrieved. Yuan Shu felt that she really ought to ask.
Helan Ying raised a brow and explained, “You were asleep, and he tried to wake you. So I… stopped him.”
“You call that ‘stopping me’?” Helan Zhao exploded the moment he heard this.
“Taking advantage of your superior strength, you pinned me against the pile of dirt at the entrance of the cave and hit me who knows how many times!”
“Helan Ying, you’re heartless! I’m the one who saved you!”
Helan Zhao complained indignantly, then turned to Yuan Shu with a pitiful look.
“Shushu, he hit me so hard. Look, I’m covered in bruises…”
